House, Darling power Bears by River Hawks

By •November 27, 2009 10:41 pm

LOWELL, Mass. — The last time the University of Maine’s Black Bears played UMass Lowell at the Tsongas Arena, the River Hawks dealt the Black Bears their worst loss of the season, 6-0, on Seniors Night.

But the Black Bears received a pair of goals from senior captain and center Tanner House and a 27-save performance from sophomore goalie Scott Darling to beat the River Hawks 3-1 Friday night.

Maine improved to 5-7-1 overall, 4-4-1 in Hockey East entering tonight’s game at Portland’s Cumberland County Civic Center against St. Lawrence.

UMass Lowell, the nation’s third-ranked team in the most recent USCHO poll, fell to 8-4-1 and 4-3-1, respectively.

House’s second goal of the game came with 2:56 left in regulation, moments after Darling stopped a wraparound attempt by Chris Auger.

Will O’Neill chipped the puck off the glass in the defensive zone and it caromed to Brian Flynn in the middle of the neutral zone.

House generated a full head of steam down the left wing and Flynn slid it across to him.

House took a couple of strides and fired a wrist shot over the glove of UMass Lowell goalie Nevin Hamilton and into the far corner.

Maine took a 2-1 lead into the third period as the Black Bears answered Kory Falite’s goal 58 seconds into the middle period with goals from House and Adam Shemansky.

Shemansky’s goal came on the power play with seven seconds left in the period.

Shemansky was parked a few feet wide of the post to the right of Hamilton and, for the third time this season, re-directed a Spencer Abbott pass from the point into the net.

House had tied it by finding some open real estate to the inner edge of the right circle, gathering a pass from Gustav Nyquist and firing a rising wrister into the far corner over Hamilton’s blocker.

Falite had opened the scoring but jamming a loose puck past Darling, who had lost sight of it after stopping Falite’s original wraparound attempt.